


Dangerous Games

by JodiMarie2910



Category: Hana Yori Dango & Related Fandoms, Hana Yori Dango | Boys Over Flowers (Anime & Manga), Hana Yori Dango | Boys Over Flowers (Japan TV 2005), 꽃보다 남자 | Boys Over Flowers (Korea TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Co-workers, Crime Scenes, Established Relationship, F/M, Ga Eul Has a Cat, Minor Character Death, Organized Crime, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Partners to Lovers, Secret Relationship, The Cat Likes Yi Jeong Better
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:22:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27294874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JodiMarie2910/pseuds/JodiMarie2910
Summary: All good detectives had their eccentricities, their calling cards. But Ga Eul only had a headache and So Yi Jeong. And the two were interchangeable, depending on the day. Detective AU. So Yi Jeong/Chu Ga Eul
Relationships: Chu Ga Eul/So Yi Jung
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome! I was inspired by the fantastic drama Flower of Evil...This is a detective AU in which Yi Jeong and Ga Eul are homicide detectives and coworkers in the same department with Jun Pyo as their immediate supervisor and Madame Kang as the head of their department. Jae Kyung is the CEO of her parents' company, and Woo Bin is the CEO of his father's construction company. Yi Jeong and Ga Eul are already 'dating' at the outset of this fic, but they are keeping it a secret because they work together.
> 
> Like Ten Dates, each chapter of this fic will switch between Ga Eul and Yi Jeong's POV. Also, like Ten Dates, this fic will be ten chapters long. Updates will be irregular, but I will finish it!
> 
> I'm rating this M mainly for sexual situations and some language. There will also be some violence and descriptions of a crime scene, but nothing graphic, and I will point it out when we get to those chapters. If there is a full-on smut scene in the future, I will also put a note at the beginning of that chapter.
> 
> If you choose to come on this journey with me, thank you. :)

Ga Eul took her sweet time opening her eyes as she basked in the warm tiredness of her limbs. She could barely make Yi Jeong out in the early morning darkness, broken only by the light from her nightlight, but she knew him to be sprawled out next to her on the other half of the bed, dozing soundly. No doubt also worn out from their previous evening's _activities_. This was getting to be too much of a habit—him sleeping over at her compact studio apartment.

Every once in a while, she slept over at his, which was an infinitely nicer place. But seeing as she had a cat to take care of, it worked better for him to stay with her.

Luckily, no one from work lived in her apartment building, as that would have caused a bigger problem.

Yet for all her good girl sensibilities, no amount of guilt or common sense had convinced Ga Eul to put a stop to their relationship.

She was probably screwing herself over professionally—he was her _partne_ r, for goodness sake's—and perhaps setting herself up for heartbreak as well, but she couldn't bring herself to care at the moment as she stared at the shadowy outline of his face, at the unkempt hair that fell over his forehead. He kept his hair styled most of the time, more carefully groomed than her. But despite his clean-shaven appearance, he was always causing trouble.

Right now he looked so peaceful, almost innocent.

As if to counter that thought, Ga Eul's alarm rang behind her.

Yi Jeong roused from his slumber and grumbled, "It's five in the morning, Ga Eul-yang. Turn off that fucking alarm, please." He waved in the general direction of her alarm and planted his face in his pillow.

"I get up every day at five, Jeongie. Unlike some people who just waltz into work whenever they feel like it." Sitting up, Ga Eul rolled her eyes and turned off the blaring clock situated on the nightstand on her side of the bed.

"Yi Jeong. My name is Yi Jeong," Yi Jeong mumbled into the pillow.

"Jeongie." Lying down once more, she rolled over on her side and poked his shoulder. "Jeongie," she sang out sweetly. "Come on, you big baby. Up. The sun will be up soon."

"What am I, five? I don't want to. You're such a mom," he mumbled.

"And you're such a big boy, and you have work." They both had work. Detectives in the same homicide division for two years. Partners for one year. Romantic partners for six months.

Oh god, she was screwed.

"Yes. I know, I know. But come on." He turned on his side to face her. "Let's just call in sick, hmm?" Cradling the side of her face in his long pianist fingers, he stroked her cheek with his thumb.

"Are you crazy?" Grabbing his hand, she stilled his thumb. "We can't both call in sick on the same day."

His gaze flickered over for a moment, roaming up and down her face. She wondered what he saw there.

Suddenly, he launched himself onto her side of the bed and pinned her down in one smooth motion.

"Why not?" he asked

"Hey." She squirmed underneath him, albeit halfheartedly. "Yi Jeong, get off of me."

"Oh, so now you call me Yi Jeong."

"Yi Jeong." She tried a firmer tone.

"You call me Yi Jeong when you _really_ want something." He kissed her forehead.

"I can't breathe," she complained, nevertheless relaxing her muscles. Resistance was a bit pointless.

"If you can talk, you can breathe. And I don't want to." His face hovered so close to hers that she was going cross-eyed. "Come on. Just five more hours."

"Yi Jeong Sunbae. Get off me, _please_."

"Why don't you offer me something, and _maybe_ I'll get up?" He grinned down at her.

Sighing inwardly, she returned his smile.

"How about I offer you something, and you _will_ get up?"

"Is it something I really like?"

"I think so. You only want to do it every day," she said in what she hoped was an enticing manner.

"Hmm...Okay."

"Okay." She gave him a wide grin. "I'll make you breakfast then."

"Wait—what?"

"Well, you do eat every day, Jeongie," she elaborated.

Yi Jeong sighed. "Fine. I'll get up. But make some coffee too, will you?"

"If you move, I'll get started on it right away...What's with that look?"

"I'm sure you could make me move if you really wanted to, Detective Chu. Which means a tiny part of you likes me pinning you to a mattress."

Ga Eul wet her lips and responded, "Well, unfortunately, it's not in my best interest to injure the partner whose supposed to have my back around armed and dangerous individuals."

"Fair point. Would you like to hear a counterpoint?"

"Go ahead."

Tilting his head over her ear, he whispered, "A tiny part of you likes me pinning you to a mattress."

* * *

Some time later, after she had taken a shower, dressed, and prepared breakfast, Yi Jeong emerged from his own shower. Anxious for attention, Ga Eul's orange and white cat, Milo, danced around his feet while he slipped into his suit. The crazy cat seemed to like Yi Jeong more than he liked her, though Ga Eul suspected that was because Yi Jeong snuck him extra treats when Ga Eul wasn't looking. Even though she had specifically instructed Yi Jeong not to.

Not that he surprised her by breaking that rule. His mischievous streak would have gotten him fired already if he wasn't the former police chief's son.

As Ga Eul poured them mugs of steaming coffee, she recalled how he'd switched their department head's private stash of coffee pods with the cheaper coffee everyone else drank but Captain Kang wouldn't deign to touch. He'd bring fake coffee pods in his lunch bag and quickly make the swap when Captain Kang was out of the office. It was unfathomable how much time he must have taken at home to carefully unseal the pods, empty them out, refill them with the inexpensive coffee, and then seal them back to look as though they'd never been touched.

Every time Captain Kang tried a new brand, he'd repeat the process.

She'd finally given up coffee altogether for a 'more wholesome alternative'—tea.

Ga Eul might have felt bad for the lady if she wasn't such a hard-ass to begin with and if everyone in their department, including herself, hadn't been in on the joke and thus equally culpable. Accessories to the crime and whatnot.

Ga Eul hadn't been working with Yi Jeong long at that point—he'd graduated from the police academy one year before her—but she'd cracked a smile once while Captain Kang ranted about all the coffee brands turning to shit. When she happened to shift her gaze in Yi Jeong's direction, she'd caught him studying her.

Of course, instead of looking away like a normal person, he'd openly smirked at her, so she'd looked away instead.

Well, here they were. Two years later. They'd been dating for six months now, but dating was a loose term, really, seeing as how they didn't actually go _out_ on any dates. Rules against interdepartmental relationships being what they were.

"You have issues, you know." It took a moment for Ga Eul to realize Yi Jeong was addressing Milo, not her. "Don't you know it's rude to swat at someone's balls?" He glared down at the cat while tying his tie.

Ga Eul snorted through a chuckle before she could stop herself. She'd nearly forgotten what had happened last night. They had been in the midst of doing _things_ when Yi Jeong suddenly froze mid-thrust and whipped his head around. She'd spied Milo scampering away as Yi Jeong pulled out and hurled curses at the cat for pawing at his balls.

"Seriously, can't you lock him in the bathroom, at least sometimes?" Yi Jeong was addressing _her_ now.

"But he hates the bathroom. I've given him too many baths in there. He'd be traumatized." Ga Eul pulled a face. "He won't even enter it when I'm brushing my teeth." Walking over to where the two of them stood, Milo still pawing at Yi Jeong's dress pants, she picked up the cat. "He just wants attention, don't you, baby?" She stroked Milo's head. Milo purred but craned his neck over toward Yi Jeong nonetheless. "He really likes you, you know."

Yi Jeong scoffed.

"I think he's jealous." He wagged his finger in Milo's face, and Milo batted at it with both paws. "He's trying to distract me so I don't pay you any attention."

"Well, it certainly worked last night." Ga Eul giggled.

Yi Jeong shuddered in response. "Don't remind me. I'm just glad he didn't scratch—ahhhh, I don't even want to think about it." He dropped his hand. "What's for breakfast?"

"Uh, we've got—"

"Hold on, I'm getting a phone call." Yi Jeong pulled his vibrating cell phone out of his pocket.

Accepting the call, he turned away from Ga Eul and paced over to the window. He drew the blinds and peered down into the street below as he responded in half sentences to the caller.

"Oh." Yi Jeong glanced back over at Ga Eul. "No, that's fine. I'll let her know. Okay. Bye."

"What is it?"

"That was Lieutenant Gu. He wants us to go to a crime scene first thing this morning. Do you know the businesswoman Ha Jae Kyung?"

"The lady who owns JK Group?"

"It's actually her parents' company, but she's running it now. Apparently, someone broke into her house last night and killed her personal bodyguard."

"What? Is Miss Kyung okay?"

"She's fine. She was in another part of the house, asleep. I didn't get any more details than that, but he wants us over at the house as soon as possible."

"I guess we better leave then," Ga Eul replied, pulling both of their to-go coffee tumblers down from her kitchen cabinet.

"We can still take five minutes to eat."

"I'll take mine on the road." She transferred the coffee from her mug. "Lieutenant Gu probably expects us to be there already," she said, referring to their supervisor's general impatience.

"I'm taking my five minutes." He crossed behind her and grabbed a pair of chopsticks from her utensil drawer.

"That's fine." Ga Eul hurriedly stuffed food into her lunch bag and retrieved her purse from the sofa. "We shouldn't get there at the same time anyway. Leave ten minutes after me, okay? Oh, and text me the address."

"Already did. You know I'm still going to get there before you, right?" he commented, stuffing rice in his mouth.

Probably an accurate assessment, given his general disregard for the speed limit on that motorcycle of his. Still, irrelevant.

"Ten minutes after me. Ten minutes," she repeated, twisting around with one foot out the door and the other propping the door open.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it. Don't you think you should blame yourself for me being late all the time?" He winked at her.

"No. I'll simply be ten minutes early."

"Kiss up."

Ga Eul smiled and moved her foot, letting the door close in his face.

She imagined him smirking behind it.

"Kiss up," Ga Eul mimicked, heading down the stairs of her apartment building.

She sighed.

All good detectives had their eccentricities, their calling cards. Sherlock Holmes had a pipe. Columbo a raincoat. Poirot an elegant mustache.

But Ga Eul only had a headache and So Yi Jeong. And the two were interchangeable, depending on the day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flashbacks are in italics. This chapter is in Yi Jeong's POV. The next chapter will be in Ga Eul's POV.

" _Um, Yi Jeong Sunbae...Sunbae...Sunbae, can we...can we slow down a little bit?" Yi Jeong paused kissing his pretty coworker's neck long enough to step back and take a good look at her face._

_In his experience, 'slow down' meant 'having second thoughts.' And the way she said it—uncertainly, like she didn't quite know herself what she did and didn't want to do—well, that didn't bode too well for his plans for the evening._

_Shit._

_He'd known this was a bad idea._

" _It's just that, um," Ga Eul stuttered. "I-I-I mean, I just...you see, it's..." She cast her eyes about her apartment kitchen. After meeting for drinks on their day off, they'd ended up at her place, doing...what they had been doing._

" _Well, go ahead, Detective Chu. Spit it out." He tried to give her a friendly smile, but she wouldn't look him in the eye._

" _I..." She stared down at his stomach from her perch on the counter. A minute ago, her legs had been wrapped around his waist, but now they dangled lifelessly from the countertop. She'd started picking at her nails, which was her signature nervous tell._

_She'd make a hopeless criminal in an interrogation; they wouldn't need to use a lie detector._

" _You're worried about Kang finding out?" he guessed. "Don't. How could she possibly know what we're doing on our off day? Our department is understaffed as it is. I doubt they have the bandwidth to needlessly surveil their own people."_

_Ga Eul shook her head. She swallowed and gripped the sides of the counter, leaving her nails alone._

" _Um, it's just that it's...my first time...doing this sort of thing."_

" _This sort of thing? Ah, you mean with a coworker?"_

" _Uh, not exactly. What I mean to say is...I've never had a-actual sex."_

_Okay, he hadn't expected that._

_She was twenty-eight, if he remembered correctly. Only one year younger than him._

_Though she was also a workaholic, fiercely devoted to her career. And utterly oblivious to his attempts at flirtation early in their acquaintance._

_He didn't recall her ever dating anyone._

" _You're a virgin?" he clarified._

" _Um, yes. I just, I didn't have much time before." She waved her hands in an apologetic manner._

" _Oh...Uh, well, if you don't really want to do this, it's fine." He took a small step back. "It's fine if you, you know, want to wait and do it with someone important. I understand."_

" _No, no, no." She waved her hands again, frantically. "I want to. I just...Could we maybe go slower?"_

_He leaned back against the refrigerator and studied her earnest face. He'd had an almost boyish infatuation with Chu Ga Eul ever since she'd first started working in his department. Though honestly good girls were not his type, and she was a goody-two-shoes if there ever was one._

_Right now, she seemed sincere but also a bit naive._

_She'd once told him she believed in soulmates._

_What if she woke up in the morning and wished she'd waited on that guy, whoever he was?_

_The annoying voice in his head that liked to tell him he didn't deserve someone like her also told him that this was a very, very bad idea, but what came out of his mouth was: "Yeah, we can...do whatever you want."_

* * *

Sleeping with Ga Eul was supposed to be a one-time thing. Just to get it out of his system.

Sure, it was a dangerous thing to do—her being his partner and all—but Yi Jeong couldn't deny he liked living on the edge.

And, honestly, when he'd first kissed her, part of him hadn't expected her to kiss him back. He certainly hadn't expected her to invite him back to her apartment, but once he was there, well, how could he resist?

But sex had turned into cuddling—she asked, and he couldn't deny her—which turned into a second time which turned into a third which turned into his socks littering the floor of her apartment and two toothbrushes in the bathroom of his apartment.

Twenty-eight years. She'd waited all that time to find her soulmate—surely there must have been other opportunities—and then she'd decided to do that with him. Ga Eul was the sort that thought everything through down to the very last detail; she wasn't like him; she wasn't impulsive or _irresponsible_.

Which meant at some point, if only in her subconscious, she had thought about doing that sort of thing with him and had deemed the action, for whatever reason, acceptable.

She approved of him, and he had no idea why.

Most strait-laced types avoided him like the plague. Or looked down their noses at him. But Ga Eul had always treated him as a friend, even when he made jabs at her about her obvious lack of a life.

He guessed _he_ was her life now, which could have been a terrifying thought but instead brought a smile to his face as he parked his motorcycle behind her economical sedan. She still sat inside her vehicle, rummaging through her purse.

He'd been aimless before her, but she was the force of nature he grounded himself in. He'd never met another detective with as much passion for the job as her. People always joked that he, the son of the former police chief, would follow in his father's footsteps one day, but if anyone deserved a position like that, it was Ga Eul.

Approaching Ga Eul's car, he knocked on the window, and her head snapped up. When she saw it was him, relief visibly washed over her face.

She opened her car door.

"Yi Jeong, did I leave my badge on the kitchen counter? Do you remember?" She kept her voice low even though there wasn't anyone close enough to hear.

"You mean this?" He held up the item in question, and she snatched it out of his hand faster than he could blink.

She cleared her throat.

"Mm, thank you. Here's your coffee." She handed him one of the two thermoses she had brought with her.

"You know, you might have noticed that badge," he advised as she got out of the car, "if you had calmed down long enough to take a sip of coffee—"

"Well, never mind about that," Ga Eul whispered. "We're late. And can you talk any louder?"

"How late can we be?" Yi Jeong spoke softer but kept his tone light. "The person's not getting any more dead," he remarked as they made their way down the street to the barricade surrounding the gated entrance of Ha Jae Kyung's sprawling residence.

"Yi Jeong!"

"What?" They halted some distance from the barricade, and Yi Jeong took a scalding sip of the coffee Ga Eul had handed him.

"You know, sometimes I really wonder why you're in this line of work. You could do with a little more respect for the deceased," Ga Eul chided.

He opened his mouth to reply, but Ga Eul was already making her way past the barricade and greeting one of the officers outside the gates to the Ha mansion.

* * *

Tucked away in northern Seoul's forested mountains, this was not a house of the newly rich but a testament to the towering business Ha Jae Kyung's grandfather had built and her father had expanded into the international enterprise it was at present. Constructed from a rich dark wood in the traditional Korean architechtural style, the house scoffed at the flashy but comparatively plebeian high-rises of Gangnam down below.

From what Yi Jeong remembered in the news, Ha Jae Kyung had retained the house for her personal use after her grandparents passed away, while her parents remained in the U.S. handling business overseas. As they entered the front iron gate, Yi Jeong noticed plentiful shrubbery and flowered plants stretching around to the back of the house to what he assumed was an impressive backyard garden, given the large fenced-in area.

Once the two of them had been cleared to go in, they were led by one of the officers swiftly back to the study, where the body of Lee Chen lay on her stomach, the crusted blood on the edge of an office desk explaining the gash on her forehead and the dried pool of blood on the Persian rug beneath her head. The housekeeper had discovered her that morning when she opened the study up for routine cleaning.

"You think someone pushed her?" Yi Jeong asked.

"Well, there don't seem to be any defensive wounds," someone from forensics, Han Jae Min, explained. "No signs of a struggle. And you'd think a person like her would put up a fight. She was Miss Ha's personal bodyguard. Once we get the autopsy report back we'll know for sure. But it's possible that she simply fell and died from the head trauma."

Ga Eul frowned.

"Is there anything missing from the study? Maybe there was a break-in?" she asked.

"There's no sign of forced entry," one of the early responding officers informed them. "The alarm never went off, and there's nothing missing that Miss Ha can tell. She has been rather upset, though. She said she'd be in the sitting room when you're ready to speak with her."

"Okay, thank you." Ga Eul nodded. She took a turn about the room while Yi Jeong knelt down to more closely examine the body itself. Lee Chen was in her nightclothes—a loose fitting set of red and white striped pajamas—and the forensics examiner was right. He didn't see any wounds on her other than the gash on her head, and she wasn't lying in a position that looked unnatural or staged. Perhaps she'd tripped and fallen as suggested? It was possible, if unlikely. A person in Miss Ha's position would have any number of enemies, and her personal bodyguard would be the first line of defense someone would have to break through in order to get her or whatever they might be after in the house or the study. Well, that and the burglar alarm, which, while armed, had remained silent throughout the night.

Another strike against the petty thievery angle then. At least thievery from the outside. They'd need to look into the rest of the staff.

"Detective So, look at this," Ga Eul called out to him from the far side of the room, where she stood by the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

He walked over. With one gloved hand, she held out a tacky keychain decorated with the head of a chicken and the slogan 'Hot and Fresh!' in Korean characters.

"Where was it?"

"It was lying on the floor under this little table. Doesn't much look like a keychain the CEO of JK Group would have."

"She's in the other room. I can go question her if you want to keep looking around." Between the two of them, they'd found that she was more adept at noticing visual details, while his strength lay more in extracting information from people. Though Ga Eul often joked that must be due to him 'sweet-talking all those women' in the past.

At present, Ga Eul nodded, distracted by a curtain that had been pulled ever-so-slightly askew.

* * *

Yi Jeong found Ha Jae Kyung hunched over a box of tissues in her own red and white striped pajamas, a matching pair to the one Lee Chen had on, and a fluffy white robe. The open, spacious 'sitting room' in the rear of the house featured floor to ceiling glass windows that overlooked—as he had anticipated—the picturesque garden in the backyard, the centerpiece of which was a fountain and a koi pond.

"Miss Ha Jae Kyung?" The lady in question looked up as he tentatively approached and offered her a sympathetic but serious expression. "I'm so sorry for your loss. My name is Detective So. I'll be working on Miss Lee Chen's case. I know this must be a difficult time, but I'd just like to ask you a few questions if you don't mind."

"Oh." Miss Ha dabbed at her face with a tissue. Her eyes were splotchy and red from crying. "I'm so sorry I look like this. I haven't...I haven't had a chance to change clothes yet." She stood up slowly, as though she might fall over from the exertion.

"It's fine, it's perfectly fine," he answered kindly. "Shall we sit?" He gestured to the couch she'd been sitting on, and she nodded and sank back down into the cushions. He took a seat in the arm chair opposite her and pulled his notebook from his jacket pocket.

"Um, would you like anything to drink? Coffee? Water? My housekeeper would be happy to—"

"Oh, no. Nothing, thank you." He gave her a friendly smile. "I would like to speak with you in private though," Yi Jeong added. "If your housekeeper could step out of the room for a moment."

"Oh, of course."

Miss Ha made a few gestures in sign language, and her housekeeper excused herself from the room. She'd been standing over by the other entrance to the room, keeping silent vigil over Miss Ha.

Yi Jeong observed, "Ah, is Miss Park—"

"She's deaf," Miss Ha explained, pulling another tissue out of the box. "She's been t-teaching me some sign language." She blotted her eyes. He noted that the tissue came away stained with mascara, though it didn't look as though she'd made any effort to get dressed that morning.

He filed that observation away for later.

"I see. Could you tell me a bit more about her and the rest of your staff?"

"Park Hee Jin has been with me for several years now." Then she added, in an adamant manner, "She's a very good housekeeper and an honest person."

"Of course, I'm sure she is." Yi Jeong nodded. "I understand your bodyguard lived with you full-time. Is that the case with Miss Park as well?"

"Yes, it's just her and Chen. And myself. Oh, and...and recently Miss Park's daughter—her name's Park Hae Soo—came to stay with us. She graduated from university a few months ago, so she's been assisting her mother until she finds a permanent job."

Yi Jeong jotted the daughter's name down alongside her mother's.

"Can you take me through what all of you were doing last night and this morning, to the best of your knowledge?"

"Miss Park was here all day and all night. You know, just doing her regular housekeeping things. I don't think her daughter came home last night. She left yesterday evening, and I never saw her come back in. She hasn't been here this morning either. But that's nothing unusual. She likes to stay out pretty late. Or sometimes all night. And Chen was...well, I saw her right before I went to sleep. She...came to say goodnight, like she always does." Jae Kyung cupped her hand over her mouth. More tears leaked out of her eyes.

Yi Jeong waited for a few moments while she recomposed herself.

The tissue box was almost empty. He glanced around the room and spotted another box sitting on an end table. He grabbed it and brought it over to her.

"Thank you," she mumbled softly as she took it.

"Do you think you could tell me a bit about your relationship with Miss Lee? It seems that you two were close."

"Well, she's been my bodyguard since I was in, um, high school. Just over a decade." Miss Ha sniffled. "I didn't have many friends back then, but she was...she was my friend." She choked over the words.

"I see." Yi Jeong kept his tone gentle. "And how did she come to work for you?"

"Um, well"—Miss Ha took a deep breath and straightened up; for a second he could see her in a business meeting—"my parents hired her to look after me. This is when we still lived in the States, actually, but they were planning on moving me back here. An arranged marriage that didn't happen." She gestured vaguely to some disembodied groom. "But then I ended up loving it here, so I stayed, and Chen stayed with me."

"Ah, I understand. And—"

"She spoke five languages," Jae Kyung interrupted. "She spoke Korean, English, Japanese, Mandarin, and Taiwanese. A lot of people don't know how incredibly smart she was. They only saw her for her fighting skills. But she took care of her family a lot when she was younger. She has a younger sister that she put through college."

"And her parents, she took care of them also?"

"Oh, well, her mother passed away when Chen was...hmm, twelve, I believe...and her father was a bit...unreliable, I guess is the best word for it. He's still alive. He owns a chicken shop. They don't really...I mean, they _didn't_ really speak much."

"Ah." Yi Jeong held up the keychain Ga Eul had discovered. "Does this look like something Chen had?"

Miss Ha frowned.

"I've never seen it before. But that does look like the chicken shop logo."

"The chicken shop owned by her father?"

"Yes. I know the shop he owns. I can give you that information. Here, let me just pull it up on my phone—where's my phone?—and write it down." Miss Ha rummaged through her purse that had been sitting on the coffee table, eventually producing her cell phone and retrieving the information. Yi Jeong wrote it down in his notebook for later.

He handed Miss Ha another tissue.

"Did Miss Lee have other relatives or friends that she kept in contact with?"

"Other than her sister, not that I know of. But she was a very private person, even with me...Oh, I suppose her sister needs to be notified. Oh god, I didn't even think of that." She clapped her palm to her mouth again.

"Oh, that's—"

"Chen's phone!" she exclaimed. "Her number should be in Chen's phone. She talks to...talked to her...on Saturdays."

"Don't worry. We'll be sure to contact her."

He scanned back over what she'd told him so far.

"Thank you. Could you also take me through what _you_ did yesterday leading up to this morning?"

"Well, I just got back from..." Miss Ha trailed off, then shook her head. "I'm sorry. I can't remember the name of the country. It's..."

"Take your time."

Miss Ha pressed a hand to her forehead.

"Um, it was um...Japan. Yes, Japan. Chen went with me. We were gone for a week, and we flew back here yesterday morning, and then I was, um, we were both at my office until three or four yesterday afternoon, I think. Then we came home. Ate dinner, you know, usual nighttime routine, and I was tired, so I went to bed...I'm sorry, it's just the whole thing is a blur right now. I keep seeing Chen lying there, wondering how this could happen in my own house. In my own _damn_ house." She balled her hands into fists.

"Around what time would you say you went to bed?" Yi Jeong asked gently.

Miss Ha took a deep breath, seeming to pull herself back from the edge of an emotional abyss.

"Um...Like I said, I was tired, so I think it was around ten."

"And what time did you wake up in the morning? Do you remember?"

"Uh...maybe seven. I'm not sure."

"And when you woke up in the morning, what happened?"

"Um, Miss Park came into my room—I was still in bed—she was hysterical. She said that Chen was knocked out on the floor in the study. So I ran down here, and...and she was lying there."

"Lying in the study?"

Miss Ha nodded.

"And what position was she lying in?"

"She was lying on her stomach by the desk. She had a...a gash on her forehead. There was blood on the carpet from where the wound had bled out. I did grab her at first because I wasn't sure if she was still alive or not. But I...but after I realized she didn't have a pulse, we didn't move her. Um, Miss Park came and...and made me let go of her."

"And what happened after that?"

"Well, I...I called the police. A-and then we just waited for the police. We just waited." The last sentence came out in a whisper. She wasn't maintaining eye contact with Yi Jeong anymore. "I'm sorry. I just. I can't. I can't remember any more right now."

Sensing it was probably best to let her process the situation for a while before asking her anything further—she seemed to still be in shock, and understandably so—Yi Jeong closed his notebook and replied, "It's all right. I think we've got plenty of information to start with, and I appreciate your time. If you remember anything else, anything at all, especially if it was unusual, please let us know. I'll give you my card, and we'll be in touch."

"Oh. Thank you," she said, her fingers trembling as she accepted the card he held out to her. "I'll be sure to call if I remember anything." Miss Ha shook her head and ran her fingers through her disheveled hair. "Look at me. I can't even help her now that she's dead. And she always took such good care of me. She wasn't just my bodyguard. She was my best friend." She snapped her head up and looked straight at Yi Jeong with red-rimmed eyes. "You _have_ to find the person who did this. You have to treat this like she's my family. _Understand_?"

* * *

"Hey." Ga Eul found Yi Jeong in the living room after he finished interviewing Ha Jae Kyung. "The housekeeper was asleep all night, and obviously she wouldn't have heard anything even if she wasn't. This morning, she didn't notice anything unusual in the house until she went into the study itself."

"Any word on the daughter?"

"Her mother's trying to reach her, but she hasn't responded yet. I told Miss Park we need to speak with her daughter down at the precinct once she makes contact."

"All right. Anything in Chen's room?"

"Not a lot." Ga Eul sighed. "She looks like a very minimalist person. A few changes of clothes. Some personal care items. That's it. We're taking her laptop and her cellphone for examination. But it's just so odd, isn't it?"

"What is?"

"She was ready for bed, so why would she be in the study? Unless there was someone else there. But if someone attacked her, then why are there no defensive wounds? She looks like someone who'd be hard to sneak up on, right?"

"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. Let's wait for the autopsy. I'm sure whatever happened will reveal itself. Maybe she tripped and fell like Han Jae Min suggested."

"That still doesn't explain what she was doing in the room. The housekeeper says she locks the room at night. She locked it last night."

Yi Jeong made to interrupt, but Ga Eul held up her finger.

"Chen _has_ a key to the study. But there's no key on her body. We found her keys in her room. So it's clear she didn't intend to go in there, and yet she ended up there."

Yi Jeong frowned.

"Who else has a copy of the key?"

"Ha Jae Kyung and Park Hee Jin."

"And the daughter?"

"No. And Park Hee Jin says she sleeps with her keys. She had them on her when she woke up this morning."

"Ah, speaking of keys, Miss Ha did say she doesn't recognize the keychain, but it may be from the chicken shop Miss Lee's father owns."

"So it's possible it belonged to Miss Lee?"

"Uh, yeah, it's possible. In any event, we should go over to the chicken place and talk to the father. Apparently, he lives above the restaurant."

"We have the security tapes too. That should show us something."

"Let's take a look at the study one more time. Maybe there's something we missed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone's interested, I am on Instagram at jodimarie2910 . This month I will be doing a special Q & A with Yi Jeong & Ga Eul. Two questions about their relationship a day for the entire month of February. One regular question in the morning, one spicy question in the afternoon. (If anyone has questions they want answered, feel free to message me those, and I will try to include them.)


	3. Chapter 3

_Ga Eul must have lost her mind._

_Hooking up with So Yi Jeong, the idea! Why had that stupid idea been planted in her brain? And why did she have the stupidity to act on it?!_

_She'd been avoiding him most of the week at work—well, as much as possible considering they had to work on cases together._

_She'd kept her answers short and to the point. She'd buried herself in her paperwork._

_Honestly, why had she thought she could be like him? Do something like that and then act like it didn't mean anything? She wasn't that type of person. She couldn't be cool and nonchalant and unaffected, though she'd been trying awfully hard to appear so ever since that night._

_Now she sat in her car in front of the station, staring at her steering wheel like it might give her a way forward._

_Ugh. What a mess._

" _Stupid, stupid, stupid," she muttered, pressing a hand to her forehead._

_A knock on her car window made her jump._

_Outside the car, Yi Jeong grinned at her and motioned for her to roll down her window._

_Oh, what did he want now?_

_Ga Eul considered driving away, but she hadn't even turned her car on yet._

_And she'd have to deal with him tomorrow, anyway. Better here, in the half-empty parking lot, than inside the building or on their way to a crime scene._

_She pressed the button on the side of her door, and a crisp breeze blew in as her window slid down._

" _Yes?" she asked._

" _You're avoiding me, aren't you?"_

" _No. If I was avoiding you, I would have driven away just now."_

_Yi Jeong laughed._

" _You should pay more attention during interrogations. Maybe one of these days you'll learn how to lie properly."_

" _What do you want?"_

" _You."_

" _Me? For what?"_

" _I had a good time the other night. Want to do it again?"_

" _Do I want to lose my virginity again?" she answered flippantly. "I don't think it works that way, but thanks."_

_Yi Jeong laughed louder, and she took a cursory glance around them to make sure no one was listening in._

" _No, I meant...in general...would you like to do that again? We could go to my place this time."_

" _Why?"_

" _Why what?"_

" _Why do you want to do it again?"_

" _Uh..."_

" _I just mean"—she folded her arms around her middle—"if sex is all you want, I'm not the girl for that. And you should probably find someone you don't work with, in my opinion."_

" _Well, that's not...that's not all I want. We are friends—"_

" _I don't do the whole 'friends with benefits' thing, if that's what you're asking."_

" _Um...no. That's not...that's not it."_

_Ga Eul studied his body language._

_He was nervous, though she had no idea why._

_Nevertheless, she took the edge out of her voice._

" _What is it then?" she asked quietly. "Yi Jeong Sunbae?"_

" _How would you like to have dinner with me? At my apartment. Say, around eight?"_

" _Sorry?"_

" _I don't...I mean, I want—"_

_A sudden drift of voices emerging from the building stopped him short._

" _Look, I'll leave it up to you." Yi Jeong took his notepad out and scribbled something on it. He ripped out the page and handed it to her. "That's my address. I'll be home all night if you want to come over. We don't have to do anything but hang out. I don't know, talk, whatever people normally do. At least, maybe we can talk about what happened." He glanced over at two of their coworkers heading out to their own respective cars. "I'll see you later then, Detective Chu." He gave her a salute and made his way to his motorcycle._

_Ga Eul sat there for another five minutes after he left, rubbing her fingers over the piece of paper._

_To damn herself or to damn herself, which will she choose?_

* * *

The next day found Ga Eul and Yi Jeong frustratedly sifting through witness statements, looking for inconsistencies. So far, the security tapes had nothing to show—no one going in or out of the house all night—and the autopsy suggested Lee Chen had died of a heart attack, not a head wound. But the odd location of her death combined with the head wound and Ha Jae Kyung's insistence that further investigation be done into the matter kept them on the hunt for other possible causes. They were still waiting on the toxicology report and the DNA sample results to come back. Even if Lee Chen had ultimately died of a heart attack, perhaps foul play was still involved. Lee Chen's laptop, if they were ever able to hack into its files through the numerous encryption measures she had set up, might provide a wealth of information on her private life.

Park Hae Soo, the housekeeper's daughter, arrived at the station late that morning, dressed like she'd once again been out all night. Or like she had never gone home at all. Everything about her sparkled—her silver eyeshadow, her sequin blouse, her long acrylic nails that tapped the desk as she recounted what she'd been doing the night Lee Chen died.

Yi Jeong did the majority of the talking during her interview, a fact which served its purpose—Hae Soo seemed a lot more forthcoming with him, though Ga Eul suspected it was a tactic to get him to go out with her. That type of behavior used to bother Ga Eul during interviews, but she'd seen so much of it by now, and besides, Ga Eul had the smug satisfaction of knowing no one could touch Yi Jeong but her.

Still, Park Hae Soo was overdoing it, just a bit, and she really wasn't telling them anything of value. Ga Eul could tell Hae Soo was leaving something out of her story, and that annoyed Ga Eul far more than the false eyelashes Hae Soo was fluttering at Yi Jeong.

"So, let me make sure I have this straight," Yi Jeong commented, reviewing what Hae Soo had told them. "You left the house around seven. Ate dinner at a chicken shop, met a guy, and spent the entire night with him."

"Correct."

"And this guy, do you remember his name?"

"Do you remember the names of all your one night stands?"

"I'll be asking the questions, Miss Park."

"Oh, but I think that's relevant. To me, at least."

Yi Jeong cleared his throat.

"Miss Park, please just answer the question. For one thing, it will be helpful to you if someone can corroborate your story."

Hae Soo smiled sweetly.

"Of course, Detective So. I believe his name was...Lee...Wang Eun. Yes, Lee Wang Eun. He works at the chicken shop I went to earlier that evening. We made plans to meet up after he got off work."

Ga Eul pulled up a text on Lee Chen's confiscated phone.

"Is this the chicken shop you went to?" The text message, sent to Lee Chen at around seven-thirty, showed Park Hae Soo posing happily in front of the very same chicken shop Lee Chen's father owned. Ga Eul and Yi Jeong had gone over to the restaurant the previous afternoon, but unfortunately, the old man, upset as he was, knew very little regarding his daughter's activities. They'd been estranged for years, as Ha Jae Kyung had suggested. The keychain, however, did come from his shop—he gave them out to his employees, and he said it was possible his daughter had one. He'd always felt she was keeping tabs on him, even if he didn't see her.

"Oh, that. Yes, I almost forgot. I ate at her father's chicken restaurant. Lee Chen's, I mean. She...recommended it to me. That's why I sent her the picture."

"Were the two of you close?" Ga Eul pressed. On the phone, there hadn't been any other messages exchanged between the two women.

"Well, I wouldn't say we were best friends, but we lived in the same house. We saw each other quite frequently, you know. So, in a way,"—Hae Soo gestured vaguely—"we were close." She immediately looked contrite, in a manner that made Ga Eul suspect she was not contrite at all. "I was so shocked to hear what happened. I just can't believe she's gone."

* * *

Finally, Hae Soo left, making eyes at Yi Jeong like she might blow him a kiss as she did so.

"All right, so I say we find Lee Wang Eun and hear his version of events." Ga Eul shook her head as the two of them walked back to Yi Jeong's desk.

"Yeah. I don't know if she's lying, but there's definitely something she's not saying," Yi Jeong agreed.

"Do you think maybe they went back to the house?" Ga Eul asked, an idea wiggling its way into her brain. "It could be Lee Wang Eun's keychain we found."

"But the cameras don't show anyone going into the house all night."

Ga Eul sighed.

"True."

"Detective So?" One of the rookie police poked his head into Yi Jeong's cubicle, where Yi Jeong had just sat down at his computer with Ga Eul standing behind him.

"Yes?" Yi Jeong replied.

"There's a woman here to see you. Ha Jae Kyung. She said she has some further information about the Lee Chen case."

"Oh, send her in." Yi Jeong stood up. "Detective Chu and I will talk with her."

* * *

"I feel so embarrassed to be coming to you like this," Ha Jae Kyung said once the three of them had been seated in a quiet location.

"Embarrassed? Why?" Yi Jeong asked, handing Miss Ha a cup of water.

"Thank you. Well, it's just that I was so upset the other morning—yesterday morning, I mean—that I left out one very important detail which I'm sure you've already caught."

Ga Eul frowned.

"And that is?" she asked.

"I think I told you I went to bed around ten. Is that correct?"

"Uh, yes," Yi Jeong answered.

"Um, well, around midnight, I woke up with a headache, and I couldn't get back to sleep. I have really bad migraines sometimes. So I went out for a walk, and I think I was gone for an hour and a half. Two hours, maybe."

"Alone?" Yi Jeong asked.

"Yes, alone. I get stress headaches when I have a big project going on, and sometimes walking helps to clear my head."

"Did you see anyone while you were out?"

"No." Miss Ha shook her head. "It was the middle of the night. I was really just walking around my property, so I didn't even see any cars."

"But on your security recordings," Yi Jeong continued, "we should see you leave the house at around midnight and get back at around one-thirty or two?"

"Yes, that's correct. And then I went back to sleep. I didn't wake up again until Miss Park came to get me to tell me that Chen had...that Chen had passed."

Ga Eul closed her notebook and folded her hands on the table.

"Sorry," Ga Eul interrupted. "We have a problem then. The security cameras don't show anyone coming or going during the night."

Miss Ha frowned.

"But they must. Honestly, I was gone for about two hours. I seem to have blocked it out yesterday, but I wanted to tell you as soon as I realized what I'd done. I figured you would have seen me leaving on the recordings...Do you think the footage was tampered with? Or the cameras?" Miss Ha's brow knitted with concern.

Possibly, Ga Eul thought, though that would have been quite difficult to do given the level of Miss Ha's technology.

"Well, it's certainly probable given what you've just told us," Yi Jeong replied when Ga Eul didn't answer. "Miss Ha, when you came in last night, do you recall hearing or seeing anything that seemed out of place?"

"No. Though to be honest, I was tired, and I wasn't looking for anything."

"Which door did you leave and come back in through?" he asked.

"The front door."

"And the door was locked when you came back?" Yi Jeong continued. "The security system was on?"

"Yes, everything appeared to be as I left it. But I suppose someone could have come through the back entrance or a window, perhaps. Though the security system should have gone off, and it was still armed."

"Lee Chen and Park Hae Soo, were they close, would you say?" Ga Eul asked.

Miss Ha gave her a curious look.

"No, not at all," she answered. "I'd say they... _tolerated_ each other."

"Can you explain what you mean by that?" Ga Eul asked.

"They only talked to each other out of necessity. Lee Chen thought I was being too generous with Hae Soo. That she's been taking advantage of me. To be honest, Hae Soo's really not that much help, but out of kindness to her mother, I haven't found it in me to kick her out." Ha Jae Kyung looked from Ga Eul to Yi Jeong then back to Ga Eul. "Sorry, do you suspect her of something?"

"We are exploring every avenue at this point," Yi Jeong stated. "Just trying to gather as much information as possible."

"Well"—Miss Ha relaxed her posture—"I must confess I have also found something missing from my house earlier today. Not from the study but from my bedroom."

"Yes?" Ga Eul urged her to go on.

"A diamond necklace that was my grandmother's. It's missing from the safe I kept my jewelry in. In my closet."

* * *

Park Hae Soo was hiding something. Ga Eul could sense it. Perhaps a diamond necklace, perhaps a murder. But Lee Wang Eun was conveniently 'out sick' when Ga Eul checked at the chicken shop, and a visit to his apartment earlier that day had proven unfruitful. They'd decided to stake out the place and as such had stopped by Yi Jeong's apartment, which happened to be only a few blocks from Wang Eun's, to use the restroom and make coffee. Ga Eul was currently pacing around Yi Jeong's kitchen, waiting for the coffee to finish brewing and applying her mind to what could have been on the cameras that had now presumably been erased and recorded over.

And exactly why and how could Hae Soo and Wang Eun have successfully attacked and/or killed Lee Chen without her fighting back?

And what to think of Miss Ha's two hours out of the house?

Miss Ha seemed too sincere in her grief to have been the culprit, but she _had_ changed her story, though obviously she hadn't known the security footage was tampered with.

Hae Soo, on the other hand, had made it clear that she didn't come back that evening in her statement.

What tune would Lee Wang Eun be singing? Ga Eul wondered.

Or, another thought: could Lee Chen herself have stolen the necklace, and Miss Ha found out and murdered her, perhaps accidentally? Was Ha Jae Kyung really so cunning as to purposefully cast doubt on her own story to make herself seem more sincere?

Yi Jeong's laptop was sitting on the counter, and without thinking Ga Eul opened it to search for the brand and style of necklace Miss Ha had filed as stolen, hoping to get a sense of its value beyond Miss Ha's report and her own appraisal and insurance policy.

But when she had typed in Yi Jeong's password and the screen opened up to a text document, she found her eyes drawn to the words on the document instead.

_Please accept this letter as my formal notice that I will be resigning from my position…_

Ga Eul's heartbeat stuttered to a halt.

A resignation letter. A half-finished one, but a resignation letter nonetheless.

Yi Jeong was writing a resignation letter.

He was resigning from his position in their department and from his position as her partner.

And he hadn't told her.

Unfortunately, the document didn't have a date on it, but if he had it open on his laptop, he must have been planning to quit soon, right?

He hadn't told Ga Eul anything about it.

In Yi Jeong's bedroom, the bathroom door shut, and Ga Eul quickly closed the laptop. She walked over to the coffee maker and tried to look busy pouring herself a thermos full of hot coffee.

"Coffee ready?" Yi Jeong asked.

"Um, yes."

"So I was thinking. Maybe Lee Chen startled them."

"Hm?" Ga Eul stirred sugar into her coffee oh-so-slowly, keeping her back turned while she waited for her cheeks to quit burning. Yi Jeong always said she was a horrible liar, and if she turned around now, she knew he would know something was off with her.

"I mean, maybe Hae Soo and Wang Eun saw Miss Ha leave the house. So they went up to her room, stole the necklace, and were caught by Lee Chen when they came downstairs."

"But there are no defensive wounds," Ga Eul countered, keeping her voice steady as she chanced turning around. "She doesn't look like she was fighting anyone."

"Okay, then, maybe they snuck up on her," Yi Jeong said, reaching around her and grabbing the pot of coffee. Then he was mercifully distracted by looking for his thermos and filling it up.

"I thought your premise was that she snuck up on them."

"Right." Giving her a sidelong glance, Yi Jeong said, "I kinda suck at investigating, don't I?" He smiled.

"Do you?" Ga Eul asked, her voice higher-pitched than normal.

"Sure, I do." He reached around her and put the coffee pot back in its place. "You're the brains of our operation." He kissed her forehead.

She swallowed and watched him back away.

He shrugged on his coat and she mechanically placed the lid on her coffee mug, grabbed her purse and her keys off the table, and went out the door he held open for her.

This was going to be a long stakeout, no matter how short it was.

**Author's Note:**

> Full Disclosure: I've never written anything in the crime/detective genre before, although I watch a lot of detective shows, so if you read something that doesn't sound logical, feel free to let me know so I can correct it.
> 
> I'm basing the police hierarchy/procedures in this fic on the LAPD since everything I can find on the Korean police system is written in Korean, and, um, I can't read Korean, sadly.


End file.
